Wairarapa Jottings.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 42, 20 April 1901, Page 18

Wairarapa Jottings.

NOW, who is to bo mayor? That is the question Let imagination run riot, and place Joe Ecnall for the coming year 111 the seat with the longitudinal back Larks' Great Hatch, 'twould be worth ten thousand ransoms to witness the meeting between the Dook and Joe. • • • A visit to the mill ought certainly to be one of the features of the royal programme. In the meantime, Mastcrton, always modest and retiring, pationtly awaits the coming of Royal Reception Commissioner Holmes. Surely, he won't leave the metropolis of the Wairarapa out of the Duke's itinerary ? If so, certain leading citizens will be very angry. Let the Commissioner bear that in mind. • • » Last week the sheen of an unaccustomed silk hat bore down on the residents, with overpowering effect. The man beneath the shiny headgear had not a presence calculated to make the beholders gape or wonder, but, all the same, he wields a more than passing influence. Our visitor was Mr. Geo. Hogben, the bosom friend and associate of earthquakes. He came along to confer with the members of the late Technical Committee, and it is to be hoped he earned in his carpet bag a few specimens of the potent powers that shake this tiny world, wherewith to infuse some life into the dreary derelicts that pose and prose as educational experts. • • • A few weeks ago a vagrant flock of wild birds, fugitively passing over the town to the Wairarapa Lake, or, perchance, to woods and bowers known only to themselves, happened to drop one of their comrades. It was a flock of pigeons. The lone and lost pigeon left behind has ever since been, not exactly a dead, but assuredly a lost, bird. Day and night it meanders round the outskirts of the city, seeking, presumably, for its companions. It is highly to be desired that anyone knowing of a flock of pigeons looking for a lost one would put them on the right track , though, unfortunately, a passing acquaintance with the bird in question has a tendency to make one believe it was lost with a purpose, and that the original proprietors have no desire to pick up the tracks of the stray one. • * * George H. Goodall, agent for a particular brand of bicycle, is pegging away. He is positively the liveliest business man in the district. But, apart from this excellent quality, George is blessed with no uncommon share of originality, especially in the dramatic line. Last winter he gave some idea of what he could do in the production of the famous and genuinely meritorious "Relief of Ladysmith" — but this winter he has in hand and head a veritable magnum opus. If the production should turn out a success in Masterton this winter, the author will probably offer the drama to one of the many enterprising managers in New Zealand, or, perchance, Australia. • • • The adjourned meeting of the subscribers to the Technical Association, under the new Act, took place on Monday night. The principal business was the election of five managers for the coming year. Mr. Feist was again voted to the chair, and he, it goes without saying, conducted the election with an even-balanced justice inseparable from his judicial personality. • * * The five managers elected were- — Messrs. R. Keith Jackson, W. H. Jackson, J. B. Keith, J. Coradine, and Edwin Feist. The result was a surprise. In the first place, the first past the post, Mr. R. K. Jackson, though a strong favourite for a place, was not expected to make the running, but he out-distanced his popular namesake from the school by a short head. Messrs. Keith and Coradine made an excellent run for third and fourth places, and the late chairman, Mr. Feist, only defeated Mr. Dalrymple by a couple of votes. The other losers were Messrs. Chisholm, Goodall, and McEwen. • • « While the poll was being counted, Mr. Daniell, who refused to stand for the committee, proposed that the action of the late committee in nominating instructors for the present school be endorsed by the meeting. Mr. W. I. Crawford opposed the resolution, pointing out that the action of the committee was irregular. However, an amendment by Mr. Dalrymple, junior — to the effect that the matter should be left in the hands of the managers — was carried. • • • This matter is a most important one. The late committee, already by law defunct, took upon itself to appoint some

new instructors for the present Technical School. Dick Seddon has as much right to appoint a successor to King Edward, as these happy-go-lucky gentlemen had to deal with an institution established by a different Act of Parliament from the one they were elected under. Mr. Feist announced that Mr. Geo, Hogben (he pronounced the name "Hoben") had assured the committee their action was constitutional. Still, the Secretary for Education is not an infallible authority on purely legal points.

Don't ever play with dynamite, In case it should explode, Beware of lobbers late at night And take the safest road. Don't laugh at any little ill, But health at once secui c Bad coughs and colds arise iiom chillTake Woods' Ghkat Peppi,rmini Coke.

MUNICIPAL ELECTION. TO THE BURGESSES OF THE CITY OF WELLINGTON.